CULTURE IN SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING

Baghzou Sabrina
Université de khenchela

Abstract

Regardless of different points of view, culture has taken an important place in

foreign language teaching and learning studies. It has been widely recognized that culture and
language is used as a main medium through which culture is expressed. However, “pure
information” is useful but does not necessarily lead learners’ insight; whereas the development
of people’s cultural awareness leads them to more critical thinking. Most frequently confronted
that students to a great extent know the rules of language, but are not always able to use the
language adequately as it requires since they are not knowledgeable enough about the target
culture. Bearing all this in mind, the aim of this article has been to provide necessary
information for the foreign language teachers and learners so that they can establish a good
connection with the target language and its culture.

Keywords: Culture; teaching culture; teaching foreign languages; cultural awareness; culture
based activities, techniques
‫ملخص‬
‫بغض النظر عن وجهات النظر المختلفة فقد اتخذت الثقافة مكانة هامة في تعليم اللغة األجنبية ودراسات التعلم و من‬
.‫المسلم به على نطاق واسع أن يتم استخدام اللغة كوسيلة رئيسية من خاللها يتم التعبير عن الثقافة‬
‫إن تنمية الوعي الثقافي يؤدي بالمتعلمين إلى التفكير النقدي و في أغلب األحيان تواجهنا حقيقة أن الطالب يتقنون قواعد‬
‫ آخذين كل هذا‬.‫ ولكن ليسوا قادرين على استخدام اللغة بشكل فعال ألنهم ليسوا على دراية كافية بثقافة اللغة الهدف‬،‫اللغة‬
‫بعين االعتبار كان الهدف من هذا المقال هو توفير المعلومات الالزمة للمعلمين والمتعلمين في اللغات األجنبية حتى يتمكنوا‬
.‫من تأسيس عالقة جيدة مع اللغة الهدف وثقافتها‬

‫التقنيات‬-‫ األنشطة المبنية على الثفافة‬-‫ الوعي الثقافي‬-‫ تدريس اللغات األجنبية‬-‫ تدريس الثقافة‬-‫ الثقافة‬:‫الكلمات المفتاحية‬

Résumé

Malgré les points de vues différentes, la culture a pris une place importante dans l'enseignement
des langues étrangères et les études d'apprentissage et il est largement reconnu que le langage
est utilisé comme un moyen principal par lequel la culture est exprimée. Le développement de
la conscience culturel des apprenants aides à la pensée critique, nous somme souvent confrontés
au fait que les étudiants maîtrisent les règles de la langue, mais ne sont pas en mesure d'utiliser
la langue d’une manière efficace car ils ne sont pas suffisamment sensibles à la culture de la
langue cible. Prenant tout cela en compte l'objectif de cet article est de fournir l'information
nécessaire pour les enseignants et les apprenants en langues étrangères afin qu'ils puissent
établir une bonne relation avec la langue cible et sa culture.
Les mots clés: la culture- l’enseignement de la culture- L’enseignement des langues
étrangéres- la conscience culturelle- les activités basé sur la culture- les techniques
Introduction

The National Center for Cultural Competence defines culture as an “integrated pattern of
human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, languages, practices, beliefs, values,
customs, courtesies, rituals, manners of interacting and roles, relationships and expected
behaviors of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group; and the ability to transmit the above to
succeeding generations” (Goode, Sockalingam, Brown, & Jones, 2000). This means that
language is not only part of how we define culture, it also reflects culture. Thus, the culture
associated with a language cannot be learned in a few lessons about celebrations, folk songs, or
costumes of the area in which the language is spoken. Culture is a much broader concept that
is inherently tied to many of the linguistic concepts taught in second language classes.
Through initiatives such as the national standards for foreign language learning, language
educators in the United States have made it a priority to incorporate the study of culture into
their classroom curricula. Cultural knowledge is one of the five goal areas of the national
standards:
Through the study of other languages, students gain a knowledge and understanding of the
cultures that use that language; in fact, students cannot truly master the language until they have
also mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occurs. (National Standards in Foreign
Language Education Project, 1996, p. 27)

What is culture?
Culture may mean different things to different people. In the anthropological sense culture is
defined as the way people live (Chastain 1988:302). Trinovitch (1980:550) defines culture as
“...an all-inclusive system which incorporates the biological and technical behavior of human
beings with their verbal and non-verbal systems of expressive behavior starting from birth, and
this “all-inclusive system” is acquired as the native culture. This process, which can be referred
to as “socialization”, prepares the individual for the linguistically and non-linguistically
accepted patterns of the society in which he lives.
According to Brown(1994:170) culture is a deeply ingrained part of the very fiber of our
being, but language –the means for communication among members of a culture- is the most
visible and available expression of that culture. And so a person’s world view, self-identity, and
systems of thinking, acting, feeling, and communicating can be disrupted by a change from one
culture to another.
 Similarly, Tang (1999) propounds the view that culture is language and language is culture.
He suggests that to speak a language well, one has to be able to think in that language, and
thought is extremely powerful. Language is the soul of the country and people who speak it.
Language and culture are inextricably linked, and as such we might think about moving away
from questions about the inclusion or exclusion of culture in foreign language curriculum, to
issues of deliberate immersion versus non-deliberate exposure to it.
In a word, culture is a way of life (Brown, 1994163). It is the context within which we exist,
think, feel and relate others. It is the “glue” that binds a group of people together. It can be
defined as a blueprint that guides the behavior of people in community and is incubated in
family life. It governs our behavior in groups, makes us sensitive to matters of status, and helps
us to know what others expect of us and what will happen if we do not live up to their
expectations. Thus, culture helps us to know how far we can go as individuals and what
our responsibility is to the group.
Why is culture?
Sometimes, some teachers are hardly aware of the necessity of cultural orientation.
Communication is seen as the application of grammatical rules in oral and written practice. In
some case, learning about the target culture is taken as a threat to the native values, and the
importance of linguistically relevant information is neglected. Since having a close contact with
the target culture and its speakers is a rare opportunity for all language learners in our country,
learners cannot appreciate the importance of learning the cultural aspects of communication
unless they visit a foreign country and experience the difficulties. Non-verbal aspects of target
culture are sometimes picked up from TV serials, which are far from being helpful for
communicative purposes or which may sometimes impart faulty conceptions.
It should not be forgotten that if the learning of the cultural aspects were necessary for the
learner’s survival abroad, the problem could be minimized; but when the person faces problems
in the comprehension, interpretation, translation and production of written and oral texts, either
as a learner or as a professional, the problem gets even more serious. That is to say, an analytic
look at the native culture is as important as the learning of the target culture. On the other hand,
problems that arise from the lack of cross-cultural awareness are not limited to the verbal side
of communication. The paralinguistic aspects and appropriate manners of behavior are equally
important factors in the communicatively competent learner’s performance. The fact that
culture-bound hand-signals, postures, mimics, and other ways of behaviour can also cause
miscommunication is neglected.
Teaching culture through language
In EFL classrooms, as we teach the language, we would automatically teach
culture. The forms of address, greetings, formulas, and other utterances found in
the dialogues or models our students hear and the allusions to aspects of culture
found in the reading represent cultural knowledge. Gestures, body movements, and distances
maintained by speakers should foster cultural insights. Students’
intellectual curiosity is aroused and satisfied when they learn that there exists
another mode of expression to talk about feelings, wants, needs and when they
read the literature of the foreign country. For depth of cultural understanding it is necessary to
see how such patterns function in relation to each other and to
appreciate their place within the cultural system. If language learners are to
communicate at a personal level with individuals from other cultural backgrounds, they will
need not only to understand the cultural influences at work in the behavior of others, but also
to recognize the profound influence patterns of their own culture exert over their thoughts, their
activities, and their forms of linguistic expression.
The teaching of the target culture has to serve the development of cross-cultural
communication. The achievement of this goal is possible with the preparation of an organized
inventory that would include both linguistic and extra linguistic aspects of the target culture.
This way the language could build bridges from one cognitive system to another (Seelye, 1968).
The culture of people refers to all aspects of shared life in a community. A language is learned
and used with a context, drawing from the culture distinctive meanings and functions which
must be assimilated by language learners if they are to control the language as native speakers
control it.
If language is described as a mode of human behaviour and culture as “patterned behaviour”,
it is evident that language is a vital constituent of culture. As mentioned earlier, each culture
has a unique pattern and the behaviour of an individual, linguistic or otherwise, manifested
through that is also unique. Foreign language will mean, therefore, changing the learner’s
behaviour and injecting a new way of life and new values of life into his already settled
behaviour pattern (Lado: 1963: 110). So, there is a close relationship between the language and
culture. This relationship of language and culture is widely recognized, communicative
behaviour and cultural systems are interrelated, as there is relation between the form and content
of a language and the beliefs, values, and needs present in the culture of its speakers.
It is also known that the students, who are in need of developing culturalawareness and
cultural sensitiveness, are normally those who are least disposed toward these goals. Teacher’s
task is to make students aware of cultural differences, not pass value judgments on these
differences. Students learning a foreign language have to assimilate many new categorizations
and codifications if they are to understand and speak the language as its native speakers do.
This does not mean that the native language of the students could not have established such
distinctions for them. All languages which have been closely studied seem to possess the
potentiality for expressing all kinds of ideas and making all kinds of distinctions (Rivers, 1982).
Learners should be exposed to these distinctions as much as possible in the foreign language
teaching classrooms. Therefore, the reasons for familiarizing learners with the cultural
components should be to;
* Develop the communicative skills.
* Understand the linguistic and behavioral patterns both of the target and the
native culture at a more conscious level.
* Develop intercultural and international understanding,
* Adopt a wider perspective in the perception of the reality,
* Make teaching sessions more enjoyable to develop an awareness of the
potential mistakes that might come up in comprehension, interpretation, and
translation and communication.
Some key considerations in developing cultural awareness in EFL classrooms
As is mentioned, both learners and teachers of a second language need to
understand cultural differences, to recognize openly that everyone in the world is not “just like
me”, that people are not all the same beneath the skin. There are real differences between groups
and cultures (Brown, 1994:167). Therefore, language teachers cannot avoid conveying
impressions of another culture whether they realize it or not (Rivers, 1981;315). Language
cannot be separated completely from the culture in which it is deeply embedded. Any listening
to the utterances of native speakers, any reading of original texts, any examination of pictures
of native speakers engaged in natural activities will introduce cultural elements into the
classroom.
While developing cultural awareness in the EFL classroom it should be kept in mind that the
native language is learned along with the ways and attitudes of the social group, and these ways
and attitudes find expression through the social group.
Learning to understand a foreign culture should help students of another language to use
words and expressions more skillfully and authentically; to understand levels of language and
situationally appropriate; to act naturally with persons of the other culture, while recognizing
and accepting their different reactions, and to help speakers of other tongues feel at home in the
students’ own culture.
While most learners indeed find positive benefits in cross-cultural living on learning
experiences, nevertheless a number of people experience certain psychological blocks and other
inhibiting effects of the second culture. Teachers can help students to turn such an experience
into one of increased cultural and selfawareness.
It is possible that learners can feel alienation in the process of learning
a foreign language, alienation from people in their home culture, the target culture, and from
themselves. In teaching foreign language we need to be sensitive to the fragility of students by
using techniques that promote cultural understanding.
The use of role-play in EFL classrooms can help students to overcome cultural “fatigue” and
it promotes the process of cross-cultural dialogues while at the same time it provides
opportunities for oral communication. Numerous other techniques -readings, films, simulation,
games, culture assimilators, culture capsules and culturgrams can be used for language teacher
to assist them in the process of acculturation in the classroom (Chastain:1988).
In addition to these techniques, teachers can play a therapeutic role in helping learners to
move through stages of acculturation. If learners are aided in this process by sensitive and
perceptive teachers, they can perhaps more smoothly pass through the second stage and into the
third stage of culture learning and thereby increase their chances for succeeding in both second
language learning and second culture learning. While teaching culture through the language
teaching Seelye (cf.Rivers, 1982: 323-4), suggests that students should be able to demonstrate
that they have acquired certain understandings, abilities, and attitudes:
* That they understand that people act the way they do because they are using options the
society allows for satisfying basic physical and psychological needs.
* That they understand that social variables as age, sex, social class, and place of residence
affect the way people speak and behave.
* That they can demonstrate how people conventionally act in the most
common mundane and crisis situations in the target culture.
*That they are aware that culturally conditioned images are associated with even the most
common target words and phrases;
* That they are able to evaluate the relative strength of a generality concerning
the target culture in terms of the amount of evidence substantiating the statement;
* That they have developed the skills needed to locate and organize material about the target
culture from the library, mass media, and personal observation;
* That they possess intellectual curiosity about the target culture and emphaty toward its people.
Another point that needs to be addressed is that if we wish the learners to master another
language, we need to help the learners become communicatively competent in that language as
much as possible. Namely, successful speaking is not just to master of using grammatically
correct words and forms but also knowing when to use them and under what circumstances.
Communicative competence should incorporate grammatical competence, discourse
competence, and sociolinguistic competence.
In other words, if the goal of the language course is to enable students to reach a level of
communicative competence, then all three components are necessary. The sociolinguistic
component of communication refers to rules of speaking which depend on social, pragmatic,
and cultural elements.
Thus, which linguistic realization we choose for making an apology or a request in any
language might depend on the social status of the speaker or hearer, and on age, sex, or any
other social factor. Besides, certain pragmatic situational conditions might call for the
performance of a certain speech act in one culture but not in another.
The other issue that should be focused is that before learning about culture, students must
be receptive to the concept of learning about cultures other than their own. To achieve culture
goals, often teacher has to play a role in breaking down cultural barriers prior to initiating
teaching-learning activities. One way to begin teaching culture on a positive note is to
emphasize similarities between people. Such a beginning should be followed by a discussion
of differences between members of students’ family, between families, between schools and
between cultures. Moreover, the topics to be used to teach the target language should be
presented in the contexts accompanying the native ones.
That is to say, while teaching a culture specific topic first language equivalent can also be given
in order to enhance learning. The use of culture-based activities abundantly in the classroom
help learners be familiar with the target culture. The activities in the materials should involve
the cultural values of the target language designed for every level.
A cultural series usually begins at the elementary stage with discussions of the daily life of
the peer group in the other language community –their families, their living conditions, their
school, their relations with their friends, their leisure-time activities, the festivals they celebrate,
the ceremonies they go through, dating and marriage customs.
At intermediate and advanced levels attention may be drawn to geographical factors and their
influence on daily living, major historical periods, how the society is organized, production,
transport, buying and selling, aspects of city and country life, the history of art, music, dance
and film and so on.
Some topics that can be presented within the course syllabus are suggested below:
* Climate
* Clothing
* Crime
* Eating
* Education
* Family life
* Geography
* History
* Holidays
* Humor
* Language
* Leisure activities
* Meeting people
* Money
* Pets
* Population
* Religion
* Social occasions
* Sports
* Transportation
* Vacation
* Nonverbal Communication
In doing these activities, the aim is to increase students’ awareness and to develop their
curiosity towards the target culture and their own, helping them to make comparisons among
cultures. The comparisons are not meant to underestimate any of the cultures being analyzed,
but to enrich students’ experience and to make them aware that although some culture elements
are being globalized, there is still diversity among cultures. This diversity should then be
understood, and never underestimated.

The Importance of Culture in Language Teaching

 Linguists and anthropologists have long recognized that the forms and uses of a given
language reflect the cultural values of the society in which the language is spoken. Linguistic
competence alone is not enough for learners of a language to be competent in that language
(Krasner, 1999). Language learners need to be aware, for example, of the culturally appropriate
ways to address people, express gratitude, make requests, and agree or disagree with someone.
They should know that behaviors and intonation patterns that are appropriate in their own
speech community may be perceived differently by members of the target language speech
community. They have to understand that, in order for communication to be successful,
language use must be associated with other culturally appropriate behavior.
In many regards, culture is taught implicitly, imbedded in the linguistic forms that students are
learning. To make students aware of the cultural features reflected in the language, teachers can
make those cultural features an explicit topic of discussion in relation to the linguistic forms
being studied. For example, when teaching subject pronouns and verbal inflections in French,
a teacher could help students understand when in French it is appropriate to use an informal
form of address (tu) rather than a formal form of address (vous)-a distinction that English does
not have. An English as a second language teacher could help students understand socially
appropriate communication, such as making requests that show respect; for example, “Hey you,
come here” may be a linguistically correct request, but it is not a culturally appropriate way for
a student to address a teacher. Students will master a language only when they learn both its
linguistic and cultural norms.

Teaching Culture Without Preconceptions

Cultural information should be presented in a nonjudgmental fashion, in a way that does not
place value or judgment on distinctions between the students’ native culture and the culture
explored in the classroom. Kramsch (1993) describes the “third culture” of the language
classroom-a neutral space that learners can create and use to explore and reflect on their own
and the target culture and language.
Some teachers and researchers have found it effective to present students with objects or
ideas that are specific to the culture of study but are unfamiliar to the students. The students are
given clues or background information about the objects and ideas so that they can incorporate
the new information into their own worldview. An example might be a cooking utensil. Students
would be told that the object is somehow used for cooking, then they would either research or
be informed about how the utensil is used. This could lead into related discussion about foods
eaten in the target culture, the geography, growing seasons, and so forth. The students act as
anthropologists, exploring and understanding the target culture in relation to their own. In this
manner, students achieve a level of empathy, appreciating that the way people do things in their
culture has its own coherence.
It is also important to help students understand that cultures are not monolithic. A variety of
successful behaviors are possible for any type of interaction in any particular culture. Teachers
must allow students to observe and explore cultural interactions from their own perspectives to
enable them to find their own voices in the second language speech community.

Instructional Strategies for Teaching Language and Culture

Cultural activities and objectives should be carefully organized and incorporated into lesson
plans to enrich and inform the teaching content. Some useful ideas for presenting culture in the
classroom are described in this section.

Authentic Materials

Using authentic sources from the native speech community helps to engage students in
authentic cultural experiences. Sources can include films, news broadcasts, and television
shows; Web sites; and photographs, magazines, newspapers, restaurant menus, travel
brochures, and other printed materials. Teachers can adapt their use of authentic materials to
suit the age and language proficiency level of the students. For example, even beginning
language students can watch and listen to video clips taken from a television show in the target
language and focus on such cultural conventions as greetings. The teacher might supply
students with a detailed translation or give them a chart, diagram, or outline to complete while
they listen to a dialogue or watch a video. After the class has viewed the relevant segments, the
teacher can engage the students in discussion of the cultural norms represented in the segments
and what these norms might say about the values of the culture. Discussion topics might include
nonverbal behaviors (e.g. the physical distance between speakers, gestures, eye contact, societal
roles, and how people in different social roles relate to each other). Students might describe the
behaviors they observe and discuss which of them are similar to their native culture and which
are not and determine strategies for effective communication in the target language.

Proverbs

Discussion of common proverbs in the target language could focus on how the proverbs are
different from or similar to proverbs in the students’ native language and how differences might
underscore historical and cultural background (Ciccarelli, 1996). Using proverbs as a way to
explore culture also provides a way to analyze the stereotypes about and misperceptions of the
culture, as well as a way for students to explore the values that are often represented in the
proverbs of their native culture.

Role Play

In role plays, students can act out a miscommunication that is based on cultural differences.
For example, after learning about ways of addressing different groups of people in the target
culture, such as people of the same age and older people, students could role play a situation in
which an inappropriate greeting is used. Other students observe the role play and try to identify
the reason for the miscommunication. They then role play the same situation using a culturally
appropriate form of address.

Culture Capsules

Students can be presented with objects (e.g., figurines, tools, jewelry, art) or images that
originate from the target culture. The students are then responsible for finding information about
the item in question, either by conducting research or by being given clues to investigate. They
can either write a brief summary or make an oral presentation to the class about the cultural
relevance of the item. Such activities can also serve as a foundation from which teachers can
go on to discuss larger cultural, historical, and linguistic factors that tie in with the objects. Such
contextualization is, in fact, important to the success of using culture capsules.
Students as Cultural Resources
U.S. schools are more culturally and ethnically diverse than they have ever been. Exchange
students, immigrant students, or students who speak the target language at home can be invited
to the classroom as expert sources. These students can share authentic insights into the home
and cultural life of native speakers of the language.

Ethnographic Studies
An effective way for students to learn about the target language and culture is to send them
into their own community to find information. Students can carry out ethnographic interviews
with native speakers in the community, which they can record in notebooks or on audiotapes or
videotapes. Discussion activities could include oral family histories, interviews with
community professionals, and studies of social groups (Pino, 1997). It is important to note that
activities involving the target-language community require a great deal of time on the part of
the teacher to help set them up and to offer ongoing supervision.

Literature

Literary texts are often replete with cultural information and evoke memorable reactions for
readers. Texts that are carefully selected for a given group of students and with specific goals
in mind can be very helpful in allowing students to acquire insight into a culture. One study
compared the level and quality of recollection when two different groups of students learned
about Côte D’Ivoire (Scott & Huntington, 2000). One group studied a fact sheet and a second
studied a poem about colonialism in Côte D’Ivoire. The researchers found that group that
studied the fact sheet retained very little information about the Côte D’Ivoire culture, whereas
the group that read the poem showed a capacity to empathize with the personal history of the
Côte D’Ivoire people.

Film

Film and television segments offer students an opportunity to witness behaviors that are not
obvious in texts. Film is often one of the more current and comprehensive ways to encapsulate
the look, feel, and rhythm of a culture. Film also connects students with language and cultural
issues simultaneously (Stephens, 2001), such as depicting conversational timing or turn-taking
in conversation. At least one study showed that students achieved significant gains in overall
cultural knowledge after watching videos from the target culture in the classroom (Herron,
Cole, Corrie, & Dubreil, 1999).

Conclusion

The idea of teaching culture is nothing new to second language teachers. In many cases,
teaching culture has meant focusing a few lessons on holidays, customary clothing, folk songs,
and food. While these topics may be useful, without a broader context or frame they offer little
in the way of enriching linguistic or social insight-especially if a goal of language instruction
is to enable students to function effectively in another language and society. Understanding the
cultural context of day-to-day conversational conventions such as greetings, farewells, forms
of address, thanking, making requests, and giving or receiving compliments means more than
just being able to produce grammatical sentences. It means knowing what is appropriate to say
to whom, and in what situations, and it means understanding the beliefs and values represented
by the various forms and usages of the language.
Culture must be fully incorporated as a vital component of language learning. Second language
teachers should identify key cultural items in every aspect of the language that they teach.
Students can be successful in speaking a second language only if cultural issues are an inherent
part of the curriculum.
In developing cultural awareness in the classroom it is important that we help our students
distinguish between the cultural norms, beliefs, or habits of the majority within the speech
community and the individual or group deviations from some of these norms. Students should
be enabled to discuss their native culture with their foreign-speaking friends at the same time
that they are provided with a real experiential content.
They can make use of their knowledge of the foreign language. There should also be
presented, discussed, or merely alluded to in two parallel streams. It should also be kept in mind
that language teaching, as mentioned above, is a long process in which performance is not
absolute and therefore we cannot expect all learners ever to acquire perfect native like
behaviour.
What we are after is the development of an awareness of sociocultural and sociolinguistic
differences that might exist between the students’ first language and the target language. Such
awareness often help explain to both teachers and students why sometimes there is unintended
pragmatic failure and breakdown in communication. If we are aware of it, it might be easier to
find the appropriate remedy.
In this respect Smith (1985:6) advocates that studying English does not change one’s
identity. Student’s ethnic, religious, and political backgrounds should remain the same.
Students will certainly want to use English well and be acknowledged as doing so, but this does
not require them to attempt a change in their identity. There is no need to become more
American or British in order to use English well. One’s morals or dedication to family traditions
need not change at all.

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